We must learn to depend upon Him and in order to do that we must learn to know Him, we must learn to have communion with Him, we must learn to find our pleasure in Him. The day may come...when we shall not be able to read. Then comes the test. Will you still be happy? Do you know Him so well that though you become deaf or blind this fount will still be open? Do you know Him so well that you can talk to Him and listen to Him and enjoy Him always? Will all be well because you have always been so dependent upon your relationship to Him that nothing else really matters? That was the apostle’s condition. His intimacy with Christ was so deep and so great that he had become independent of everything else.

I believe that what helped him most to learn this lesson was his looking at the great and perfect example of Christ Himself (Hebrews 12:1-4). Paul ‘looked unto Him’ and saw Him and His perfect example. And he applied it to his own life. ‘While we look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal’ (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18).

Christian people, can you say that, do you know that state? Let this become first with us, let this become our ambition, let us strain every nerve and do everything we can to get into this blessed state. Life may force it upon us, but even if circumstances do not, the time is bound to come, soon or late, when earth and every earthly scene will pass away, and in that final isolation of the soul we shall be alone, facing death and eternity. The greatest thing in life is to be able to say with Christ Himself at that hour, ‘And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me’ (John 16:32).—D. Martin Lloyd-Jones

The Chestnut MareAll that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lostThe old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by frost.- - - -JRR Tolkien "Lord of the Rings"